The Yellow Wallpaper

“The Yellow Wallpaper” Essay The true meaning of the story “The Yellow Wallpaper” written by Charlotte Perkins Stetson makes one think about the meaning of sanity. The women in this stories mental state is changed based on the people around her and the environment she is placed in. First off, the relationship between her husband, John and herself is controlling. Secondly, the environment that her husband has put her in has a major effect of her sanity. Lastly, her baby has an effect on her well being. In conclusion, this story is a journey through this women`s life and how she has been effected by her surroundings.
Firstly, within this story when this woman goes on summer vacation her husband seems to have complete control over her and every movement she makes. He seems to first display a problem with control when the women explains that she has a schedule for each hour of the day. The woman says “He is very careful and loving, and hardly lets me stir without special directions. I have a schedule prescription for each hour in the day; he takes all care from me, and so I feel basely ungrateful not to value it more.” When she says this in the story it seems as if he has tricked her that he knows what is best for her and she should be grateful that she does not have to do anything for herself. He is taking away control from her over herself which can affect her sanity by not having a say over what she does in everyday life. Her husband, John has made decisions for her throughout the story even when she does not agree with them. The wife has said “John says if I don`t pick up faster he shall send me to Weir Mitchell in the fall. But I don`t want to go there at all.” This almost seems to be a turning point for this woman. She has decided that she does not want to go to this place to get better and she will prove to him that she is better before he has the chance to send her away. Lastly, he has begun to push the control further to a point where she is afraid of John. “Indeed he started the habit by making me lie down for an hour after each meal. It is a very bad habit I am convinced, for you see I don`t sleep. And that cultivates deceit, for I don`t tell them I`m awake – O no ! The fact is I am getting a little afraid of John.” says the wife. He seems to have so much control over his own wife that she is now afraid of what he is going to do to her and by him doing this he is slowly changing her mental state. In conclusion, John has completely taken control over his wife to a point where she cannot move without his say and she has almost been brain washed into thinking that she does not have a say in anything and he is always correct. Secondly, when this woman goes on summer vacation with her family there is a specific room that she is put in by her husband that slowly makes her go insane. Her husband has told his wife that she shall sleep in the upstairs room with the yellow wallpaper which begins to irritate her. She says “The color is repellant, almost revolting; a smouldering unclean yellow, strangely faded by the slow-turning sunlight.” When she talks about the colour of the room there is almost anger in her words making her mad at the walls of the room which begins to change her mental state. Slowly, she begins to think deeper into the colour of the walls and makes it mean so much more than it should. The woman personifies the walls by saying “Up and down and sideways they crawl, and those absurd, unblinking eyes are everywhere. There is one place where two breaths didn`t match and the eyes go all up and down the line, one a little higher than the other.” By doing this she actually believes that it may be a person or maybe many people in the walls which affects her sanity largely. From there the woman now believes a woman is living in the walls and thinks that she can watch her leave and come back to the walls. She says “The front pattern does move – and no wonder ! The woman behind shakes it ! Sometimes I think there…

Related Documents: The Yellow Wallpaper

Loretta Perdue
H205
Professor Woessner
5, February 2013
The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Biographical information about the author of Charlotte Perkins Gilman, was a writer and a social reformer born July 30, 1860 in Hartford Connecticut. Charlotte had a long and difficult childhood. Her father left her mother with t two children to raise alone. Charlotte married an artist by the name of Charles Stetson in 1884 and they had a daughter named Katherine. Charlotte suffered greatly…

seen as hysterical and nervous beings and the advised treatment was that of “Rest Cure” in order to monitor the condition. Was the problem post partum depression? Or was it the “female condition” that women experienced in society? The story, “the yellow wall paper” is centered on the descriptions of the wall paper and the woman interactions with it which reveals more to the reader than just a mere state of depression.
The female condition was characterized by women’s attempt to identify…

Carolina Rodriguez
Sylvia Herrera
English Literature
16 September 2014
Respond Paper: The Yellow Wallpaper
The yellow wallpaper was written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, this book is known for its feminists literary ties. The narrator wrote this during the Victorian Era. An era full of constrictment towards women.The story is a set of journals written from the point of view of a woman undergoing a -mental breakdown- defined as what we call "postpartum depression.” Gilman experiences oppression…

Writing about literature
Yellow wallpaper
From the title of this story, I can merely think about something related to yellow paper in the wall in a house or outside of a building. But after I finish reading the story, I realize that it is a story that describes the very inner of the narrator who suffer from postpartum depression. It was a tragic of that time and a tragic of that couple. Although the narrator’s husband is a doctor, he seems knew little about the disease his wife suffering. I think…

In the story, “The Yellow Wallpaper,” Gilman uses feminism to portray a society where males dominate over females. An inequality is shown towards women as they are displayed as weaker individuals in situations in relationships and outside forces. Later on in the story, the male and female roles change as the relationship between the inequalities of the two characters in the story. Gilman’s use of feminism sets the stage of the story as masculinity reigns over femininity in how the plot progresses…

of The Yellow Wallpaper, used many literary devices to strengthen her story and develop the character of the narrator. The story is written in a first person point of view. The speaker/Narrator is portrayed as an anxious, depressed woman who is delusional.
The author used the element of repetition in describing the yellow wallpaper, this shows that the wallpaper is of importance and how the speaker is paranoid and imaginative. The description of the wallpaper as “a smoldering unclean yellow...” helps…

Allison McDaniel
April 19th, 2011
Lit 215
The Yellow Wallpaper
By Charlotte Perkins Gilman
The narrator starts her journal by marveling at the splendor of the ancestral hall and grounds her husband; John has leased for their private summer getaway. Once the couple finally moves into the house, she immediately senses something wrong with the place, but John scorns at her fears, which seems to be a recurring theme in their marriage. Her feeling that there is “something queer” about the mansion…

The Yellow Wallpaper
It has been an ongoing thought throughout the years that women were made for marriage, child bearing and duties of a house-wife. Women have always had little to no control over their lives. Charlotte Perkins Gilman a feminist and female rights activist calls attention to the suffocation of women’s rights and their freedom to have a mind of their own. She started writing “not to create literature but to improve the world.” She uses experiences from her own life to show what…

Analysis of The Yellow Wallpaper
The Yellow Wallpaper is a collection of fictional journal entries written by a woman whose husband, also a physician, has confined her to the upstairs bedroom of a house, which he rents for the summer. As part of her “Rest Cure” treatment, she is forbidden from working and has to hide her journal from him so she can recuperate from what he calls a “slight hysterical tendency”, now known as depression, which was a common diagnosis to women in the late 19th…

"The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman has many times been seen as a victory for the feminist movement. It has exposed the mistreatment of women by those in the medical community. It has revealed the sexism that was still rampant in the late 19th century. It has also, in a way, given women a voice and forced the public to recognize the seriousness of these issues.
Gilman's intent in writing "The Yellow Wallpaper" was, "...to save people from being driven crazy." She seems to have done…

Words 2019 - Pages 9

* Test names and other trademarks are the property of the respective trademark holders. None of the trademark holders are affiliated with this website.